Album Review: Purity Ring – another eternity

Canadian duo Purity Ringtook the music world by storm in 2012 with their debut album Shrines. The group was extremely well-received by Philadelphia, selling out both the First Unitarian Church, and later Union Transfer. Purity Ring will return to Union Transfer again at the end of May, this time though, in support of their second album, another eternity.

Largely contributing the growing world of what’s being called “witch house”, Purity Ring’s sound can be largely attributed to a hip-hop and synthpop roots. The duo meld trap-inspired drum patterns with surreal synthesizer layers and atmospheric vocals.

The duo’s follow-up to Shrines seems to be a pretty straight-forward extension of their first album. Refining their production and introducing plenty of new sound design, Purity Ring still maintains their rattling electropop sound quite firmly on another eternity.

The new record is, overall, much more energetic than its former. Purity Ring introduce new electrifying synthesizer jabs with tracks like “heartsigh” and “sea castle”. The album still has it’s subtle moments, sinking more deeply into lead vocalist Megan James’ faded chants. The drums are the album’s most familiar element, once again resonating a strong trap and hip-hop influence, spliced with just a small pinch of glitch.

All around, another eternity seems to also encapsulate a generally more positive atmosphere than Shrines. James remains soulful in her vocal approach, but backed by a now much more energetic array of synthesizers and sound design, the new record takes a definitive upbeat turn in mood from their duo’s debut.